Residents spoke out in opposition of an application to build a confinement feeding operation in western Muscatine County.
However, in the end the Muscatine County Supervisors would approve the permit for construction of the hog confinement to begin.
The application for the permit was from JDSD Farms LLC in Section 6 of Pike Township.
Muscatine County Planning and Zoning Coordinator Eric Furnas told supervisors this was for two swine finishing barns on Atwood Avenue. The maximum amount of swine in each of these buildings would be 4,998.
Rhonda Meredith, a resident of Bay Circle in Nichols, spoke in opposition of the swine finishing barns location. She said she supplied a letter to the supervisors and read it during the public hearing to clarify some items.
“First, I’m opposed because on May 5 of this year the Muscatine Board of Adjustments denied a special use permit to JDSD Farms to split three acres from their 41 acres for a single family residence,” Meredith said.
The reason was because the CRS2 (corn sustainability) soil rating rated at 85 average and shouldn’t be taken out of agriculture production, she added. Two months later the application for permit was listed on the agenda for the same property.
The next reason why she was opposed to this location for the swine finishing barns was because 14 residences are located 2,000 feet away up to a mile and a half away. The closest residences to the confinement operation would be within 400 feet of the cropland where JDSD had a signed agreement to release the liquid manure at, Meredith said.
Meredith told the supervisors she had contacted the Department of Natural Resources about this proposed swine confinement operation. She found out there was one person in charge of 14 counties to monitor swine confinement operations.
She also said she opposed this operation because there was another hog confinement operation on Bay Circle, which was one a half miles east of the proposed Atwood Avenue location.
“And as a homeowner and landowner across the road from that unit we and our neighbors have experienced the habitual nuisance of foul odors, heavy trucks such as semis on our gravel road, concerns about delinquent carcass pickup (and) monitor our well water as well continually,” Meredith said. “With this proposal, we face being in the middle of three units. Two that are 4,998 hogs on the west and the one that is currently on the east.”
Two million gallons of liquid manure would come from these operations, she added. She asked the supervisors to deny the permit application because there were too many questions about the operation. She wanted those answered.
Supervisor chairman Scott Sauer asked Furnas for clarification about the manure usage. He asked Furnas if the manure would be sprayed instead of it being injected into the ground. Furnas said that was correct but it has to be incorporated into the plan submitted to the DNR.
“Right,” Sauer said. “That’s why I wanted it clarified to the public because when they use that terminology the public may not understand that it is incorporated.”
Rachel Renner, owner of Knee Deep Solutions, of Washington, Iowa, spoke to the supervisors about the manure management plan she was hired by JDSD Farms LLC to create.
In the plan, the manure would be incorporated within 24 hours of it being removed from the swine confinement operation, she said. If the neighbors see this not happening she encouraged them to call the DNR to report it.
"The farmers hold themselves to a high standard so when we submit these plans to the state, to (the county), to the DNR, we’re intending to follow them,” Renner said.
Renner also said the DNR does regular checks at confinement operations but clarified they oversee 16 counties and are spread out. There is one senior office and four specialist officers that Renner works with a lot.
David Meredith, Rhonda’s husband, also spoke out against the permit for the hog confinement feeding operation. He told supervisors he was concerned about the odor that would come from the operation there.
“It’s interesting,” D. Meredith said. “There are no stink meters used nationwide to assess odors because it’s a subjective issue.”
He asked what odor mitigation strategies JDSD Farms LLC plan to use and what odor mitigation strategies did they choose not to use.
His wife spoke one more time during the public hearing. She said she found very few residents knew about the hearing being held that day. She told supervisors she only found it published in The Index but wanted them to publish it other ways such as maybe having someone go door-to-door.
Administrative Services Director Nancy Schreiber told Meredith the public hearing was published in three county newspapers and was posted online.
Furnas told supervisors the county didn’t have the staff to go door-to-door to notify people on public hearings for confinement feeding barns. He also said if the supervisors would have to decide who would be notified and could see requests being made for door-to-door notifications of other public hearings.
The supervisors closed the public hearing after no one else came forward to talk about this topic. The vote was taken next, which was approved the permit unanimously.